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Greg Sullivan
January 09, 2026

"Nine Times Blue" is a jaw dropping intersection of craftsmanship and pure talent.

The great debate about The Monkees is whether they were a real band or just a group of actors thrown together for a TV show. The answer is yes. They were actors cast to play an American version of The Beatles, and many of their early songs were written by big-time professional songwriters such as Tommy Boyce, Bobby Hart, Neil Diamond, Carole King, and Gerry Goffin.

However, The Monkees would pick up their own instruments, play on the 1967 Headquarters album, and perform as a live band on sold-out tours. After a resurgence in the '80s, the band enjoyed a lucrative career as a legacy act, with various members continuing to perform as The Monkees until Michael Nesmith died in 2021. Nesmith, originally a country singer from Dallas, Texas, wrote several of The Monkees' hits, including "Mary, Mary," "Papa Gene's Blues," "The Girl I Knew Somewhere," and "Listen to the Band," and was a driving force in the group being taken seriously as musicians.

Here's how to talk through the brick wall.

Some folks in this world just have to be right. All the time. Even when you present them with every fact imaginable that proves they are wrong, they will resort to any rhetorical tactic they can to make it seem as though they are right. If that doesn't work, they turn to personal attacks.

People like this can be infuriating to deal with because talking to them is like screaming at a wall. Fortunately, communication expert Jefferson Fisher recently shared a two-step method on TikTok for dealing with these impossible people.

Fisher, who has become massively popular online, offers tips "to help people argue less and talk more."

Shoes and a show!

Instagram Post

"Every term invented to get around TikTok censors."

It’s pretty customary for humans to collectively latch on to certain words or phrases for a time, only to grow tired of them once the trendiness wears off. That’s by and large how we get generational slang in the first place. One man’s “rad” is another man’s “bussin.” The linguistic circle of life, as it were. `

But the rapidity of social media has certainly seemed to make this turnover move at the speed of light, hasn’t it? It takes a fraction of the time for words to get overused, misused, change meaning, and lose meaning altogether.

That’s probably why when someone on Reddit asked, “What overused word or phrase needs to be retired in 2026?” there was no shortage of passionate answers. From warped psychology terms to nonsensical Gen Alpha brainrot words, people delivered.

There's a lot to consider, but one thing nearly all vets agree on.

When we bring a new pet into the family, the last thing we want to think about is saying our final goodbyes to them. But life expectancies being what they are means the vast majority of pet owners will have to let go of their furry family members at some point. Either old age or terminal illness will force difficult decisions about when "it's time" for a dog or a cat, and determining if or when to euthanize can feel like an impossible choice.

Popular foster dog mom Isabel Klee found herself in a position of having to make that choice with a foster dog she had only been caring for for a short time. Zero came to her as a 12-year-old dog with medical and behavioral issues, and when it became clear that medical treatment and loads of love weren't enough to keep him from suffering, Klee decided the kindest course of action was to give Zero a loving family to hold him as he crossed "the rainbow bridge."